SEMA News—January 2014

EVENTS
By Russell Datz

Heard on the Floor

SEMA Show Exhibitors Share Their Perspectives

The 2013 SEMA Show was the biggest in the event’s 47-year history, with more than 126,000 people converging on the Las Vegas Convention Center to do business at the world’s largest annual automotive trade show. We visited a few random exhibitors to ask how the Show was going from their perspective, and this is what we heard.

Woodward Fab

Phil Heck owns Woodward Fab, a 47-year-old, family-run metalworking equipment maker. Woodward Fab’s tools—English wheels, throatless sheers, slip rolls and others—range in price from $89–$30,000, and most are of the company’s own design.

Heck joined the association in 2001 when his company first exhibited at the SEMA Show. As a newcomer, Woodward Fab was relegated to displaying in the parking lot, but now the company has a modest 20x10-ft. space in North Hall.

“The SEMA experience has all been positive,” Heck said. “We meet a lot of our customer base who walk through that door. We see a lot of repeat customers year after year, so we’re building on that.”

Heck’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the company but weren’t working the booth.

“We fight for who does the Show,” Heck said with a chuckle. “They didn’t rank high enough.”

GoPro

GoPro makes portable digital cameras and built a brand by adding a new perspective to homemade movies. So what is the company doing at the SEMA Show?

A surfer and auto-racing enthusiast, founder Nicholas Woodman’s idea of a rugged, wrist-mounted camera grew when the motorsports world picked up on it. To leverage that interest, Woodman set up a 10x10-ft. display at the 2008 SEMA Show. His strategy worked. GoPro now has one of the largest and most popular displays.

“One of the biggest ways people use our camera is within automotive,” said Ruben Ducheyn, GoPro’s senior lifestyle marketing manager.

“SEMA really brings the whole industry together, whether it’s from the racing side or the enthusiast show-car side or just your everyday driver. For us to be able to be here and cover such a broad spectrum is really beneficial. We’ll be here for sure next year.”

Westin Automotive Products

Westin Automotive Products has been exhibiting at the SEMA Show for 35 years. Starting as a replacement truck bumper manufacturer, the company now makes a full line of truck accessories, thanks in part to the SEMA Show.

“The SEMA Show is a really good part of how we go to market,” said Junior Calvert, vice president of sales. “Your whole customer base comes into one location. It’s great market research. [The SEMA Show] gives us an opportunity to see where other competition is at.”

Calvert noted that the 2013 SEMA Show included a company plan to learn more about the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC).

“We brought our entire data team with us,” Calvert said. “The SDC is something that we really want to get behind, to get our things faster to market. If you don’t have the correct data, your company won’t last very long.”

SEMA News—January 2014

EVENTS
By Russell Datz

Heard on the Floor

SEMA Show Exhibitors Share Their Perspectives

The 2013 SEMA Show was the biggest in the event’s 47-year history, with more than 126,000 people converging on the Las Vegas Convention Center to do business at the world’s largest annual automotive trade show. We visited a few random exhibitors to ask how the Show was going from their perspective, and this is what we heard.

Woodward Fab

Phil Heck owns Woodward Fab, a 47-year-old, family-run metalworking equipment maker. Woodward Fab’s tools—English wheels, throatless sheers, slip rolls and others—range in price from $89–$30,000, and most are of the company’s own design.

Heck joined the association in 2001 when his company first exhibited at the SEMA Show. As a newcomer, Woodward Fab was relegated to displaying in the parking lot, but now the company has a modest 20x10-ft. space in North Hall.

“The SEMA experience has all been positive,” Heck said. “We meet a lot of our customer base who walk through that door. We see a lot of repeat customers year after year, so we’re building on that.”

Heck’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the company but weren’t working the booth.

“We fight for who does the Show,” Heck said with a chuckle. “They didn’t rank high enough.”

GoPro

GoPro makes portable digital cameras and built a brand by adding a new perspective to homemade movies. So what is the company doing at the SEMA Show?

A surfer and auto-racing enthusiast, founder Nicholas Woodman’s idea of a rugged, wrist-mounted camera grew when the motorsports world picked up on it. To leverage that interest, Woodman set up a 10x10-ft. display at the 2008 SEMA Show. His strategy worked. GoPro now has one of the largest and most popular displays.

“One of the biggest ways people use our camera is within automotive,” said Ruben Ducheyn, GoPro’s senior lifestyle marketing manager.

“SEMA really brings the whole industry together, whether it’s from the racing side or the enthusiast show-car side or just your everyday driver. For us to be able to be here and cover such a broad spectrum is really beneficial. We’ll be here for sure next year.”

Westin Automotive Products

Westin Automotive Products has been exhibiting at the SEMA Show for 35 years. Starting as a replacement truck bumper manufacturer, the company now makes a full line of truck accessories, thanks in part to the SEMA Show.

“The SEMA Show is a really good part of how we go to market,” said Junior Calvert, vice president of sales. “Your whole customer base comes into one location. It’s great market research. [The SEMA Show] gives us an opportunity to see where other competition is at.”

Calvert noted that the 2013 SEMA Show included a company plan to learn more about the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC).

“We brought our entire data team with us,” Calvert said. “The SDC is something that we really want to get behind, to get our things faster to market. If you don’t have the correct data, your company won’t last very long.”

SEMA News—January 2014

EVENTS
By Russell Datz

Heard on the Floor

SEMA Show Exhibitors Share Their Perspectives

The 2013 SEMA Show was the biggest in the event’s 47-year history, with more than 126,000 people converging on the Las Vegas Convention Center to do business at the world’s largest annual automotive trade show. We visited a few random exhibitors to ask how the Show was going from their perspective, and this is what we heard.

Woodward Fab

Phil Heck owns Woodward Fab, a 47-year-old, family-run metalworking equipment maker. Woodward Fab’s tools—English wheels, throatless sheers, slip rolls and others—range in price from $89–$30,000, and most are of the company’s own design.

Heck joined the association in 2001 when his company first exhibited at the SEMA Show. As a newcomer, Woodward Fab was relegated to displaying in the parking lot, but now the company has a modest 20x10-ft. space in North Hall.

“The SEMA experience has all been positive,” Heck said. “We meet a lot of our customer base who walk through that door. We see a lot of repeat customers year after year, so we’re building on that.”

Heck’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the company but weren’t working the booth.

“We fight for who does the Show,” Heck said with a chuckle. “They didn’t rank high enough.”

GoPro

GoPro makes portable digital cameras and built a brand by adding a new perspective to homemade movies. So what is the company doing at the SEMA Show?

A surfer and auto-racing enthusiast, founder Nicholas Woodman’s idea of a rugged, wrist-mounted camera grew when the motorsports world picked up on it. To leverage that interest, Woodman set up a 10x10-ft. display at the 2008 SEMA Show. His strategy worked. GoPro now has one of the largest and most popular displays.

“One of the biggest ways people use our camera is within automotive,” said Ruben Ducheyn, GoPro’s senior lifestyle marketing manager.

“SEMA really brings the whole industry together, whether it’s from the racing side or the enthusiast show-car side or just your everyday driver. For us to be able to be here and cover such a broad spectrum is really beneficial. We’ll be here for sure next year.”

Westin Automotive Products

Westin Automotive Products has been exhibiting at the SEMA Show for 35 years. Starting as a replacement truck bumper manufacturer, the company now makes a full line of truck accessories, thanks in part to the SEMA Show.

“The SEMA Show is a really good part of how we go to market,” said Junior Calvert, vice president of sales. “Your whole customer base comes into one location. It’s great market research. [The SEMA Show] gives us an opportunity to see where other competition is at.”

Calvert noted that the 2013 SEMA Show included a company plan to learn more about the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC).

“We brought our entire data team with us,” Calvert said. “The SDC is something that we really want to get behind, to get our things faster to market. If you don’t have the correct data, your company won’t last very long.”

SEMA News—January 2014

EVENTS
By Russell Datz

Heard on the Floor

SEMA Show Exhibitors Share Their Perspectives

The 2013 SEMA Show was the biggest in the event’s 47-year history, with more than 126,000 people converging on the Las Vegas Convention Center to do business at the world’s largest annual automotive trade show. We visited a few random exhibitors to ask how the Show was going from their perspective, and this is what we heard.

Woodward Fab

Phil Heck owns Woodward Fab, a 47-year-old, family-run metalworking equipment maker. Woodward Fab’s tools—English wheels, throatless sheers, slip rolls and others—range in price from $89–$30,000, and most are of the company’s own design.

Heck joined the association in 2001 when his company first exhibited at the SEMA Show. As a newcomer, Woodward Fab was relegated to displaying in the parking lot, but now the company has a modest 20x10-ft. space in North Hall.

“The SEMA experience has all been positive,” Heck said. “We meet a lot of our customer base who walk through that door. We see a lot of repeat customers year after year, so we’re building on that.”

Heck’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the company but weren’t working the booth.

“We fight for who does the Show,” Heck said with a chuckle. “They didn’t rank high enough.”

GoPro

GoPro makes portable digital cameras and built a brand by adding a new perspective to homemade movies. So what is the company doing at the SEMA Show?

A surfer and auto-racing enthusiast, founder Nicholas Woodman’s idea of a rugged, wrist-mounted camera grew when the motorsports world picked up on it. To leverage that interest, Woodman set up a 10x10-ft. display at the 2008 SEMA Show. His strategy worked. GoPro now has one of the largest and most popular displays.

“One of the biggest ways people use our camera is within automotive,” said Ruben Ducheyn, GoPro’s senior lifestyle marketing manager.

“SEMA really brings the whole industry together, whether it’s from the racing side or the enthusiast show-car side or just your everyday driver. For us to be able to be here and cover such a broad spectrum is really beneficial. We’ll be here for sure next year.”

Westin Automotive Products

Westin Automotive Products has been exhibiting at the SEMA Show for 35 years. Starting as a replacement truck bumper manufacturer, the company now makes a full line of truck accessories, thanks in part to the SEMA Show.

“The SEMA Show is a really good part of how we go to market,” said Junior Calvert, vice president of sales. “Your whole customer base comes into one location. It’s great market research. [The SEMA Show] gives us an opportunity to see where other competition is at.”

Calvert noted that the 2013 SEMA Show included a company plan to learn more about the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC).

“We brought our entire data team with us,” Calvert said. “The SDC is something that we really want to get behind, to get our things faster to market. If you don’t have the correct data, your company won’t last very long.”

SEMA News—January 2014

EVENTS
By Russell Datz

Heard on the Floor

SEMA Show Exhibitors Share Their Perspectives

The 2013 SEMA Show was the biggest in the event’s 47-year history, with more than 126,000 people converging on the Las Vegas Convention Center to do business at the world’s largest annual automotive trade show. We visited a few random exhibitors to ask how the Show was going from their perspective, and this is what we heard.

Woodward Fab

Phil Heck owns Woodward Fab, a 47-year-old, family-run metalworking equipment maker. Woodward Fab’s tools—English wheels, throatless sheers, slip rolls and others—range in price from $89–$30,000, and most are of the company’s own design.

Heck joined the association in 2001 when his company first exhibited at the SEMA Show. As a newcomer, Woodward Fab was relegated to displaying in the parking lot, but now the company has a modest 20x10-ft. space in North Hall.

“The SEMA experience has all been positive,” Heck said. “We meet a lot of our customer base who walk through that door. We see a lot of repeat customers year after year, so we’re building on that.”

Heck’s daughter and son-in-law recently joined the company but weren’t working the booth.

“We fight for who does the Show,” Heck said with a chuckle. “They didn’t rank high enough.”

GoPro

GoPro makes portable digital cameras and built a brand by adding a new perspective to homemade movies. So what is the company doing at the SEMA Show?

A surfer and auto-racing enthusiast, founder Nicholas Woodman’s idea of a rugged, wrist-mounted camera grew when the motorsports world picked up on it. To leverage that interest, Woodman set up a 10x10-ft. display at the 2008 SEMA Show. His strategy worked. GoPro now has one of the largest and most popular displays.

“One of the biggest ways people use our camera is within automotive,” said Ruben Ducheyn, GoPro’s senior lifestyle marketing manager.

“SEMA really brings the whole industry together, whether it’s from the racing side or the enthusiast show-car side or just your everyday driver. For us to be able to be here and cover such a broad spectrum is really beneficial. We’ll be here for sure next year.”

Westin Automotive Products

Westin Automotive Products has been exhibiting at the SEMA Show for 35 years. Starting as a replacement truck bumper manufacturer, the company now makes a full line of truck accessories, thanks in part to the SEMA Show.

“The SEMA Show is a really good part of how we go to market,” said Junior Calvert, vice president of sales. “Your whole customer base comes into one location. It’s great market research. [The SEMA Show] gives us an opportunity to see where other competition is at.”

Calvert noted that the 2013 SEMA Show included a company plan to learn more about the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC).

“We brought our entire data team with us,” Calvert said. “The SDC is something that we really want to get behind, to get our things faster to market. If you don’t have the correct data, your company won’t last very long.”

SEMA News—January 2014

BUSINESS Technology
By Jon Wyly

Waiting to Make a Decision About Data Management?

Vulnerability Awaiting Plunder

“With data collection, ‘the sooner the better’ is always the best answer.”—Marissa Mayer

It’s a simple truth in today’s business environment: Data is driving business like never before, whether it’s data about customers, products, competitors or any number of other factors that determine how well informed we are. For those of us in the automotive specialty-equipment trade, “data” is typically talked about in terms of product data—all of the properly presented words, numbers and pictures that illustrate the full rich value, function and desirability of a particular product.

Oddly, the automotive segment is still predominately a paper-catalog world when it comes to presenting products, and “data” is often just a file of random digital copy and images used to produce the paper catalogs. However, for the younger generations (and even many of us older folks), paper catalogs are rapidly becoming passé, and electronically delivered information (data) is now part of the lifestyle. One could say that attention spans have decreased, but today’s mantra of “give me the information I need, make it accurate, and make it fast or my dollars will go to someone who can do just that” is a harsh reality. I guess that explains why more than 50% of consumers now research potential purchases online before buying, regardless of whether they buy locally or on the web.

It sounds as though you’ll need to get busy making data about your products available to resellers across your customer base if you’re going to compete and prosper in this “fast information” age, doesn’t it? So where do we start?

The SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) was created as a not-for-profit subsidiary of SEMA specifically to help collect, validate, store and distribute product data in a very consistent, organized, efficient manner. If you can gather your bits and pieces of product data, the staff at the SDC will take whatever you have to start with and begin the process of pushing it into industry standard (ACES and PIES) templates. From there, an iterative back-and-forth conversation will begin to help you fill in the blanks, and you will be on your way to developing a sharable, standards-compliant data set. That initial “clean” data set will form the basis for a robust, well-maintained library of your products, fueling resellers to promote your goods to the millions of people seeking to solve a problem or satisfy a want.

So why wait? “The sooner the better” is definitely the best answer to growing your business through effective product data management.

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t recognize the name of the author in our opening quote, Mayer is the 38-year-old president and CEO of Yahoo. She was ranked as the 14th most influential woman in business by Forbes magazine in 2012. I’d say she has her finger on the pulse.

SEMA News—January 2014

BUSINESS Technology
By Jon Wyly

Waiting to Make a Decision About Data Management?

Vulnerability Awaiting Plunder

“With data collection, ‘the sooner the better’ is always the best answer.”—Marissa Mayer

It’s a simple truth in today’s business environment: Data is driving business like never before, whether it’s data about customers, products, competitors or any number of other factors that determine how well informed we are. For those of us in the automotive specialty-equipment trade, “data” is typically talked about in terms of product data—all of the properly presented words, numbers and pictures that illustrate the full rich value, function and desirability of a particular product.

Oddly, the automotive segment is still predominately a paper-catalog world when it comes to presenting products, and “data” is often just a file of random digital copy and images used to produce the paper catalogs. However, for the younger generations (and even many of us older folks), paper catalogs are rapidly becoming passé, and electronically delivered information (data) is now part of the lifestyle. One could say that attention spans have decreased, but today’s mantra of “give me the information I need, make it accurate, and make it fast or my dollars will go to someone who can do just that” is a harsh reality. I guess that explains why more than 50% of consumers now research potential purchases online before buying, regardless of whether they buy locally or on the web.

It sounds as though you’ll need to get busy making data about your products available to resellers across your customer base if you’re going to compete and prosper in this “fast information” age, doesn’t it? So where do we start?

The SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) was created as a not-for-profit subsidiary of SEMA specifically to help collect, validate, store and distribute product data in a very consistent, organized, efficient manner. If you can gather your bits and pieces of product data, the staff at the SDC will take whatever you have to start with and begin the process of pushing it into industry standard (ACES and PIES) templates. From there, an iterative back-and-forth conversation will begin to help you fill in the blanks, and you will be on your way to developing a sharable, standards-compliant data set. That initial “clean” data set will form the basis for a robust, well-maintained library of your products, fueling resellers to promote your goods to the millions of people seeking to solve a problem or satisfy a want.

So why wait? “The sooner the better” is definitely the best answer to growing your business through effective product data management.

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t recognize the name of the author in our opening quote, Mayer is the 38-year-old president and CEO of Yahoo. She was ranked as the 14th most influential woman in business by Forbes magazine in 2012. I’d say she has her finger on the pulse.

SEMA News—January 2014

BUSINESS Technology
By Jon Wyly

Waiting to Make a Decision About Data Management?

Vulnerability Awaiting Plunder

“With data collection, ‘the sooner the better’ is always the best answer.”—Marissa Mayer

It’s a simple truth in today’s business environment: Data is driving business like never before, whether it’s data about customers, products, competitors or any number of other factors that determine how well informed we are. For those of us in the automotive specialty-equipment trade, “data” is typically talked about in terms of product data—all of the properly presented words, numbers and pictures that illustrate the full rich value, function and desirability of a particular product.

Oddly, the automotive segment is still predominately a paper-catalog world when it comes to presenting products, and “data” is often just a file of random digital copy and images used to produce the paper catalogs. However, for the younger generations (and even many of us older folks), paper catalogs are rapidly becoming passé, and electronically delivered information (data) is now part of the lifestyle. One could say that attention spans have decreased, but today’s mantra of “give me the information I need, make it accurate, and make it fast or my dollars will go to someone who can do just that” is a harsh reality. I guess that explains why more than 50% of consumers now research potential purchases online before buying, regardless of whether they buy locally or on the web.

It sounds as though you’ll need to get busy making data about your products available to resellers across your customer base if you’re going to compete and prosper in this “fast information” age, doesn’t it? So where do we start?

The SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) was created as a not-for-profit subsidiary of SEMA specifically to help collect, validate, store and distribute product data in a very consistent, organized, efficient manner. If you can gather your bits and pieces of product data, the staff at the SDC will take whatever you have to start with and begin the process of pushing it into industry standard (ACES and PIES) templates. From there, an iterative back-and-forth conversation will begin to help you fill in the blanks, and you will be on your way to developing a sharable, standards-compliant data set. That initial “clean” data set will form the basis for a robust, well-maintained library of your products, fueling resellers to promote your goods to the millions of people seeking to solve a problem or satisfy a want.

So why wait? “The sooner the better” is definitely the best answer to growing your business through effective product data management.

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t recognize the name of the author in our opening quote, Mayer is the 38-year-old president and CEO of Yahoo. She was ranked as the 14th most influential woman in business by Forbes magazine in 2012. I’d say she has her finger on the pulse.

SEMA News—January 2014

BUSINESS Technology
By Jon Wyly

Waiting to Make a Decision About Data Management?

Vulnerability Awaiting Plunder

“With data collection, ‘the sooner the better’ is always the best answer.”—Marissa Mayer

It’s a simple truth in today’s business environment: Data is driving business like never before, whether it’s data about customers, products, competitors or any number of other factors that determine how well informed we are. For those of us in the automotive specialty-equipment trade, “data” is typically talked about in terms of product data—all of the properly presented words, numbers and pictures that illustrate the full rich value, function and desirability of a particular product.

Oddly, the automotive segment is still predominately a paper-catalog world when it comes to presenting products, and “data” is often just a file of random digital copy and images used to produce the paper catalogs. However, for the younger generations (and even many of us older folks), paper catalogs are rapidly becoming passé, and electronically delivered information (data) is now part of the lifestyle. One could say that attention spans have decreased, but today’s mantra of “give me the information I need, make it accurate, and make it fast or my dollars will go to someone who can do just that” is a harsh reality. I guess that explains why more than 50% of consumers now research potential purchases online before buying, regardless of whether they buy locally or on the web.

It sounds as though you’ll need to get busy making data about your products available to resellers across your customer base if you’re going to compete and prosper in this “fast information” age, doesn’t it? So where do we start?

The SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) was created as a not-for-profit subsidiary of SEMA specifically to help collect, validate, store and distribute product data in a very consistent, organized, efficient manner. If you can gather your bits and pieces of product data, the staff at the SDC will take whatever you have to start with and begin the process of pushing it into industry standard (ACES and PIES) templates. From there, an iterative back-and-forth conversation will begin to help you fill in the blanks, and you will be on your way to developing a sharable, standards-compliant data set. That initial “clean” data set will form the basis for a robust, well-maintained library of your products, fueling resellers to promote your goods to the millions of people seeking to solve a problem or satisfy a want.

So why wait? “The sooner the better” is definitely the best answer to growing your business through effective product data management.

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t recognize the name of the author in our opening quote, Mayer is the 38-year-old president and CEO of Yahoo. She was ranked as the 14th most influential woman in business by Forbes magazine in 2012. I’d say she has her finger on the pulse.

SEMA News—January 2014

BUSINESS Technology
By Jon Wyly

Waiting to Make a Decision About Data Management?

Vulnerability Awaiting Plunder

“With data collection, ‘the sooner the better’ is always the best answer.”—Marissa Mayer

It’s a simple truth in today’s business environment: Data is driving business like never before, whether it’s data about customers, products, competitors or any number of other factors that determine how well informed we are. For those of us in the automotive specialty-equipment trade, “data” is typically talked about in terms of product data—all of the properly presented words, numbers and pictures that illustrate the full rich value, function and desirability of a particular product.

Oddly, the automotive segment is still predominately a paper-catalog world when it comes to presenting products, and “data” is often just a file of random digital copy and images used to produce the paper catalogs. However, for the younger generations (and even many of us older folks), paper catalogs are rapidly becoming passé, and electronically delivered information (data) is now part of the lifestyle. One could say that attention spans have decreased, but today’s mantra of “give me the information I need, make it accurate, and make it fast or my dollars will go to someone who can do just that” is a harsh reality. I guess that explains why more than 50% of consumers now research potential purchases online before buying, regardless of whether they buy locally or on the web.

It sounds as though you’ll need to get busy making data about your products available to resellers across your customer base if you’re going to compete and prosper in this “fast information” age, doesn’t it? So where do we start?

The SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) was created as a not-for-profit subsidiary of SEMA specifically to help collect, validate, store and distribute product data in a very consistent, organized, efficient manner. If you can gather your bits and pieces of product data, the staff at the SDC will take whatever you have to start with and begin the process of pushing it into industry standard (ACES and PIES) templates. From there, an iterative back-and-forth conversation will begin to help you fill in the blanks, and you will be on your way to developing a sharable, standards-compliant data set. That initial “clean” data set will form the basis for a robust, well-maintained library of your products, fueling resellers to promote your goods to the millions of people seeking to solve a problem or satisfy a want.

So why wait? “The sooner the better” is definitely the best answer to growing your business through effective product data management.

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t recognize the name of the author in our opening quote, Mayer is the 38-year-old president and CEO of Yahoo. She was ranked as the 14th most influential woman in business by Forbes magazine in 2012. I’d say she has her finger on the pulse.